The present invention relates to a process and apparatus for placing printed images, particularly printed color images, on objects having a variety of sizes and shapes.
It is known in the art to apply printed color images to various objects, including bottles, various other types of packages, writing instruments, etc., by first printing such images on release coats provided on support films, including polyester films, and then transferring the images to the final object. The processes and equipment currently employed for this purpose, typically of the offset or rotogravure type, can be operated economically only in those cases where a very large number of identical images are to be printed. This is true because very high set-up costs are associated with the creation of each image.
Typically, in the prior art, an image is separated into four basic process colors, such as cyan, magenta, yellow and black. A negative is created for each color and a photosensitive printing plate is developed for each negative. Once the four printing plates have been mounted on a press, they are inked and a press "make-ready" registration process is performed. Frequently, this operation itself takes several hours. As a result, it has not been considered economically feasible to use such a process to produce fewer than 20,000 copies of the same image.
In view of these economic limitations, when a given design, or image, is to be produced in small numbers, it is the typical practice to employ silk screening. However, silk screening requires the use of multiple screens to produce images composed of a plurality of colors and care must be taken to properly position, or register, each screen on the object to which the image is to be applied.